January 3. A jihadist with a London accent appeared in an Islamic State propaganda video after the group executed five men accused of spying for the UK. The masked gunman warned Prime Minister David Cameron that the West could never defeat the Islamic State. The video also showed a young boy, aged around four and with a British accent, threatening to kill non-Muslims.

January 4. British officials traveled to Sudan to stanch the flow of UK-born medics joining the Islamic State. More than a dozen British doctors studying at Sudan’s University of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST) have joined the Islamic State to treat jihadists in Syria. Parents said they had sent their children to study in Sudan to reconnect them with their African and Islamic roots before returning to practice medicine in Britain.

January 4. The Jamiatul Ummah School in Tower Hamlets, East London, failed an inspection when investigators from Ofsted, the official agency that regulates British schools, found extremist material in its library, including books that call for stoning women.

January 5. Pastor James McConnell, a 78-year-old pastor from Belfast, was cleared of charges that he violated the Communications Act 2003 when, in a sermon broadcast on the internet, he described Islam as «heathen,» «Satanic» and «a doctrine spawned in hell.» Judge Liam McNally said: «The courts need to be very careful not to criticize speech which, however contemptible, is no more than offensive. It is not the task of the criminal law to censor offensive utterances.»

January 6. A man and a woman were arrested on suspicion of terrorism after attempting to board a UK-bound flight with fake Belgian passports. The pair, understood to be brother and sister, were arrested at Cristoforo Colombo Airport in Genoa, Italy, while trying to board the flight. Fears were raised that the pair, who claimed to be Syrian refugees, might be jihadis after police found violent images on their smartphones.

January 6. A House of Commons briefing paper on polygamy revealed that recent reforms to the social security system would allow migrants in polygamous marriages to claim additional benefits payments. Although polygamy is illegal in Britain, some 300,000 people are believed to be living in such unions in the country.

January 6. The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), which represents examination boards in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, reached an agreement with Muslim groups to reschedule crucial exams during the next three years to avoid clashing with Ramadan, when observant Muslim pupils would be expected to fast.

January 8. A Muslim woman who claimed she was assaulted in downtown Birmingham for wearing a hijab days after the Paris attacks was fined after video footage proved she fabricated her story.

January 8. Islamic extremists were allowed to tour British universities unchallenged, even though universities and colleges are legally required to prevent extremists radicalizing students on campus, according to the Daily Mail.

January 9. The Criminal Cases Review Commission, an official government body, was found to be helping asylum seekers overturn their convictions for illegal entry to Britain in order to allow them to receive refugee status and remain in the UK. MPs said the practice could «undermine deterrence» and lead to thousands more illegal arrivals.

January 15. London Police released video footage of a hijab-clad woman who tried to stab a 15-year-old boy on a bus in Lambeth.

January 16. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond revealed that some 1,500 Britons tried to join the Islamic State since 2012. An estimated 800 people, mostly jihadists and family members, successfully entered Syria; roughly half are still there. Another 600 were stopped, either as they tried to leave Britain, or after arriving in Turkey.

January 18. Prime Minister David Cameron announced a plan to invest £20 million (€33 million; $28 million) in English classes for Muslim women to reduce the risk of extremism. He said migrants to Britain who cannot pass an English test within 2-1/2 years of arriving may not be allowed to stay. British Muslim groups accused Cameron of demonizing their communities.

January 19. Muhammad Shamsuddin, a 39-year-old London-based Islamist, was featured in a new documentary called «The Jihadis Next Door.» Shamsuddin, a divorced father of five who lives on state handouts and claims he cannot work because he has «chronic fatigue syndrome,» was filmed preaching hate against non-Muslims on British streets.

January 19. The government launched a new website, «Educate against Hate,» aimed at helping schools and parents to tackle the «spell of twisted ideologies.»

January 22. The Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, called on British clergymen to grow beards to reach out to Muslims in their areas.

January 24. Behar Kasemi, a 42-year-old refugee from Kosovo, was jailed for four weeks after he threatened to cut out his wife’s heart because she had become «too English.» He told police: «In my country it is for the women to obey their husbands and look after the children.»

January 25. One in five prisoners in Britain’s top-security prisons are Muslim. The eight Category A prisons contain 5,885 highly dangerous inmates and 1,229 — 20.8% — are Muslim. By comparison, 5.5% of the overall UK population is Muslim.

January 25. The Royal Air Force foiled a jihadist plot by two commercial airline pilots to bomb four British cities. The pilots, who were leaving Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport for a Middle Eastern country, were heard discussing attacks on London, Bath, Brighton and Ipswich. They were using the emergency «Mayday» channel in the belief they were not being monitored.

January 29. A judge in New York sentenced Mahdi Hashi, a 26-year-old Somali-born British citizen, to nine years in prison for joining al-Shabaab, a jihadist group based in East Africa. Hashi, who grew up in London, first came to Britain as a six-year-old when his family fled the civil war in Somalia. His British citizenship was revoked in July 2012 due to his «extremist activities.» He was later deported to the United States.

January 29. Ibrahim Anderson, 38, a convert to Islam, and Shah Jahan Khan, 63, were sentenced to a total of five years in prison for promoting the Islamic State on London’s Oxford Street.

January 30. Three Somalis who gang-raped a 16-year-old girl after luring her into a hotel bathroom in Manchester were sentenced to a total of 29 years in prison. The men, who showed no remorse for their actions, were said to be living according to the laws of Somalia, not Britain.